The editorial-team here at Whewell’s Gazette the weekly #HistSTM links digest tend towards the curmudgeonly end of the social spectrum so our attitude to Halloween is perfectly summed up by the following, in our opinion, wonderful photograph.

Photographer unknown

However the #HistSTM community appears to contain a large Halloween fan club and this barbaric custom having taken place in the last seven days our twentieth edition is perforce a Halloween special: A ghoulish collection of #HistSTM stories

Spirit rapping was so popular, by 1853, T. Ellwood Garrett and W.W. Rossington published a song about it, via sheet music. (From the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University)

“There is no history of knowledge.” Peter Drucker, 1993.” h/t @LeapingRobot

“28 October 1492. Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ Cuba on his first voyage to the ‘New World’. It had always been there, of course.“ Frank McDonough @FXMC1957

“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!“ C. Darwin h/t @interacciones

Birthday of the Week:

One of the real horrors of our world is or, thankfully, better said was the poliovirus. In my childhood still considered “one of the most frightening public health problems in the world”, to quote Wikipedia. Its full horror is perfectly summed up in its popular German name, Kinderlähmung, which literally translates as child paralysis, describing the effect of this disease of the nervous system. In this age where it is fashionable to be anti-vaccines it is perhaps good to pause and remember that this horror disease was largely stamped out by the polio vaccines developed in the 1950s by various researchers, most notably by Jonas Salk. Salk’s greatest deed was perhaps the fact that he didn’t apply for a patent for his vaccine stating when asked, “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” Jonas Salk would have turned one hundred years old on 28 October 2014, an anniversary honoured with a Google Doodle, and so he is this week’s birthday boy.

As I was still putting this edition of Whewells Gazette together I heard of the death of a good acquaintance, the German jazz saxophone player Klaus Kreuzeder at the age of 64 on 3 November 2014. Klaus played with many leading international musicians throughout the years including standing on the stage with Sting and Stevie Wonder. I say standing but in Klaus’ case it was sitting in a wheel chair as he caught polio at the age of one and a half, which stunted his growth and crippled him for life. A superb musician he was an inspiration to many handicapped people who flocked to his concerts to him him play. I humbly dedicate this edition of Whewell’s Gazette to the memory of Klaus Kreuzeder an excellent musician and a very fine human being.